India Hampi Boulder Scramble

Hampi, Karnataka, India · India

Moderate7 daysAsia~£200 est.

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Overview

Hampi is what happens when a medieval imperial capital is built inside a natural sculpture park: countless granite boulders, stacked by deep time into improbable towers, threaded with the temples and elephant stables of Vijayanagara at its 16th-century peak. Scrambling is the way to see it. The pre-dawn ascent of Matanga Hill — hands-on in places through a boulder corridor — puts you above the whole ruined city as the sun hits the Virupaksha temple gopuram, and across the Tungabhadra river the boulder fields around Virupapur Gaddi hold some of the world's best granite bouldering, with a laid-back international climbing scene every winter. The heat is the variable: by 10 a.m. the granite is a griddle, so scramble at dawn and dusk and spend the middle of the day in the ruins or by the river. November to March is the season. Hospet is the railhead, scooters are the local transport, and £200 goes a long way — guesthouse beds, thalis and crash-pad hire for a week.